Baldwins, it turns out, is pretty much opposite where a friend of mine lives, but I'd never laid eyes on it before. It's a fairly small pond, located in at the bottom of a pretty steep slope, and fed by a stream from one end which is dammed at the other. Trees line the two long sides, with dense reed beds at one end and a shallow, clear section and sluice gate at the other. A weed bed runs around most of the perimeter, out to 8 feet or so. There was a lot of activity on the surface with rudd and roach breaching, and a large shoal of the former sunning themselves at the shallow end. There were plenty of bubble trails along the weed beds too; hopefully a sign of a tinca or two and perhaps some crucians. It's a- rudd-a-cast with maggot, so I had a bit of fun while taking in the view. As with all the forest ponds, it's a pretty spot:
Time wasn't on my side and I wanted to take a look at Blackweir too, so I left the rudd to their sunbathing and headed up hill along Clay Ride, one of the bridleways through the trees. At the junction with Green Ride, I struck off diagonally into the forest, trusting that the satellite picture of the area I'd looked at before setting out would steer me true. Sure enough, I soon spotted an area ahead where more light was coming through and headed towards it. As the trees thinned out, I got my first look at Blackweir Pond, and it'll certainly stick in the memory, with water as green as the trees around it and a surface like a mirror:
Blackweir is smaller than Baldwins but holds some good features, such as reed beds on two sides and a variety of sunken logs and branches poking through the surface. I watched the surface for a good ten minutes but saw no sign of activity. Not to be deterred, I flicked a few maggot out and followed up with a triple on the float, trying a few likely looking spots. I didn't get a single tap, nudge or brush for half an hour, but did notice a few bubbles and tiny wakes, possibly from fry just beneath the completely opaque surface. Still, it was a beautiful place to wet a line and I'll be back to give it a proper go:
Next up will be the double of Staples Pond and Earl's Path Pond, which I know already has a thread dedicated to it, so I'm looking forward to taking a look at it. I love these forest ponds!
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